Gulf of Mexico

Ben Raines, an environmental reporter for AL.com, holds pieces of wood he collected from a cypress forest discovered in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. A scientist says having an intact forest from the ice age is rare.
Debbie Elliott/NPR
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Scientists: Long-Buried Ice Age Forest Offers Climate Change Clues

A person and a dog make their way through a flooded street in Houston after the area was inundated with flooding from Harvey, which has been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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The teal blue area along the Louisiana coastline represents a "dead zone" of oxygen-depleted water. Resulting from nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Mississippi River, it can potentially hurt fisheries.
NASA/Getty Images
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The Gulf Of Mexico's Dead Zone Is The Biggest Ever Seen

The Zirlott family's oyster farm is at the end of a long pier in Sandy Bay. Legend has it that the name "Murder Point" comes from a deadly dispute over an oyster lease at this site back in 1929.
Debbie Elliott/NPR
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7 Years After BP Oil Spill, Oyster Farming Takes Hold In South

The Flame Refluxer is essentially a big copper blanket: think Brillo pad of wool sandwiched between mesh. Using it while burning off oil yields less air pollution and residue that harms marine life.
Courtesy of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Researchers Test Hotter, Faster And Cleaner Way To Fight Oil Spills

Wetlands and marshlands that once protected New Orleans and the surrounding areas from storm surge have been depleted over the years. Here, the $1.1 billion Lake Borgne Surge Barrier outside New Orleans in 2015.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Richie Blink, born and raised in Plaquemines Parish, La., south of New Orleans, works for the National Wildlife Federation. He got in touch with an archaeologist to take a look at some shards of pottery that were eroding into the Gulf of Mexico. Blink holds a pottery shard that could be 300 to 500 years old, from the Plaquemine culture of what's called the Bayou Petre phase.
Tegan Wendland/WWNO
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5 Years After BP Oil Spill, Experts Debate Damage To Ecosystem

Blue crabs brought back to Tony Goutierrez's dock in Hopedale, La. For the past few years, his traps have been coming up empty. "It's sad to see it go, but it's going — this way of life is going to disappear," he says.
Laine Kaplan-Levenson for NPR
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